Service Employed

Benefits Achieved

Challenge

A Canadian refiner had a poor track record when it came to meeting turnaround cost and schedule targets. The company contacted AP-Canada to help them improve their performance, and provide management with more confidence in the planning and preparation status.

Approach

AP-Canada implemented our Turnaround Assist Program (T-AP). The program involves four separate engagements, three of which are executed prior to shutdown. During the Challenge Session (T-AP 2), the client’s Turnaround Readiness Index (TRI), a 5-point scale measure of turnaround readiness, was well below that of Industry turnarounds of like size and complexity. Our estimates suggested that the client’s turnaround would have startup schedule overruns of more than 40 percent, and cost overruns of 35 percent.

Several recommendations were proposed by our consultants to manage and mitigate these potential risks. The AP-Canada team worked with the turnaround core team to develop and implement a recovery plan.

Results

A few months later, when AP-Canada’s staff returned to conduct the Readiness Assessment (T-AP 3), it was evident that the client had implemented many of our suggestions. As a result, their TRI was substantially above that of their Industry peers, and both their startup schedule overruns and cost overruns had improved to less than 10 percent. The final cost and schedule outcomes of the turnaround were within 10 percent of all targets.